Who are the Augustinians, anyway?

Pope Leo is one. What else should you know about the Order of St. Augustine?

When Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected pope on May 8, taking the name Leo XIV, he became not only the first American pope, but the first the papal member of the Order of St. Augustine as well.

Augustinian friars pose together just moments after the conclusion of Pope Leo XIV's Inauguration Mass. Credit: Augustinian friars/Facebook.

A relatively small order, the Order of St. Augustine has some 2,800 members in 47 countries across the globe — less than half the number of Capuchin Franciscans, or Dominican friars.

So who are the Augustinians? What’s their spirituality all about?

Fr. Thomas McCarthy O.S.A. has been a member of the Order of St. Augustine for 40 years. He is director of the St. Rita Shrine in Chicago and vocation director for the Midwest Augustinian Province, the province to which Pope Leo XIV belonged, and which the pope led as prior provincial 25 years ago.

McCarthy talked with The Pillar about the ideas of friendship, restlessness, and unity that are at the heart of the Augustinian spirituality.

That interview is below. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you give an overview of the Augustinian history and spirituality?

We trace our roots back to St. Augustine. He lived 354 to 430. He is not our founder because there were no such thing as religious orders [back then]. We actually were founded by the Church in 1244, but our whole spirituality is based on everything Augustine did. The rule of life, which we profess to live by, Augustine wrote in the year 400, and it was passed down for 800 years without any hierarchy. It was simply passed along: ‘Hey, Michelle, read this. Hey George, read this.’ And people were saying, ‘Wow, this makes sense.’ And so for 800 years that was passed along.

We were founded in 1244 when Pope Innocent IV took many different little groups that were living the rule of Saint Augustine, and he invited them to come together, and we became the Order of St. Augustine as we know it today.

The whole thing is about living together. The first part of the rule, first line, he says, the purpose of your coming together is to be of one heart and one mind and intent upon God. So everything for us is about community and friendship, because that's what Augustine stressed. And doesn't Jesus stress that in the Eucharist, the one table in the one body of Christ?

So we build community. We are to build community and live community within our houses, our friaries, but then we take that to the people we minister to - whether we're in a parish, whether we're in a school setting, whether we're preaching, it doesn't matter as long as we keep trying to bring people together. I do parish missions and retreats around the country. A lot of times I'm the only Augustinian, and in that particular place, my job is to build community with that group and to show them how to do that.

Pope Leo has been in office, what, like three weeks? And he's already been back to the Augustinian community twice. Because that's what roots us, that's what gives us our foundation. Our spirituality is of being together, walking together, searching for God together.

After Augustine's conversion, he lived with his friends. That's what he wanted to do, living together in Christian community. He then was called to be a priest. So he went and he started another community where he lived in a priests’ house. Then he was called to be a bishop. And he said, ‘I will only be a bishop if you allow me to start another community where the bishop's house is.’

So in Augustine's day, there were three communities: the first one, then the one where he was a priest, and the one where he was the bishop. And the two communities that were not living with him said, ‘Augustine, you're not living with us anymore. We don't know how to do this. Can you tell us?’ And so the rule that we have today, he wrote as a letter to the other two communities in the year 400.

Why did Augustine believe it was so important to live in community? Was it a need to resist temptation? A way to strengthen his faith? A means of evangelization?

Everything you just said. He was constantly searching for happiness. He was constantly searching for meaning in his life. He tried everything that the world said would make him happy. He lived with a woman that was not his wife. He had a baby out of wedlock. Nothing was bringing him peace.

So he was always searching for that friendship. And he found it. St. Ambrose was really a big help to him, and also his mother, St. Monica — though at times she was a little bit of a nag - she admitted that, and so did he.

But he got to where he was, with his conversion, through people, through friends, through people that came together.

In one of his sermons, he talks about how we warm our hearts at the table of friendship. That’s a paraphrase, not an exact quote. But Augustine was always searching for that friendship, being involved, never wanting to do it alone. And that's what his rule says. And once he was baptized, that's why he was never alone again.

Augustine is famous for writing, ‘You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.’ How do you as an Augustinian live out that restlessness?

Restlessness is not a bad word. It's actually a very positive word. Restlessness means we're never satisfied with where we are. We're always moving forward, always making progress. Augustine’s negative restlessness moved him towards his baptism, and then he moved into a positive restlessness.

I am conscious in my ministry - and I think most Augustinians would say - that we're never alone. That restlessness will move us to get to know you. You're not just interviewing me. I want to get to know you.

If I'm in a classroom setting, in a school setting, how do I make sure that not one kid is alone? When I was president and principal of St. Rita High School in Chicago, we took out the long prison-like bench tables you see in cafeterias. We took them out because we said, this is not Augustinian. You could be alone at the end of a long table. And sometimes kids, they have a little bit more trouble maybe fitting in. And so by being at a round table, even if you're not talking, you're a part of the community.

So that restlessness moves you to say, ‘Who am I around that is hurting that needs a little extra push or care? Who do I encourage?’

In his rule, Augustine wrote that you have to go to the public baths two-by-two. Well, you could imagine in a public bath, everyone's naked and things happen. Why do you go two-by-two? So that you watch out for your brother. How does that relate? Today we don't have public baths. Well, what it means is watch out for your brother and sister…we're all in this together.

There has been a lot of speculation in these early weeks of the pontificate about whether Pope Leo will be liberal or conservative. Do you think that’s asking the wrong question?

I hate the titles ‘conservative’ and ‘liberal.’ If you want to talk about Augustinians, we're authentically Catholic. If you want to know who an Augustinian is, watch what Pope Leo is saying and how he does it.

People who want to know if he's liberal or conservative, I think they're going to be disappointed. Because he's going to be authentically Catholic. I think you're going to see the way he lives that out is the way he cares for people, the way he'll be a true pastor.

I love the gospel of the woman caught in the act of adultery. The people that were going to stone her were doing what was legal, right? Moses said she should be stoned. But Jesus steps in with unbelievable mercy, love and forgiveness. Now, he doesn't let her off the hook — he still challenges her. He says, ‘Go and sin no more.’ And so that's not being liberal or conservative, that's being authentically Christian.

How do we accept and love each other? And that also includes a challenge.

I think what you're going to see with Pope Leo is that he is authentically a Catholic priest, teaching the faith, but in the spirit of Augustine, which would be building up that community, being totally open and merciful to everyone. How do you bring people to Jesus and Jesus to people? You love them, you accept them where they are, and then bring them to great places.

Saint Augustine, in sermon 169, says never be satisfied with where you are because if you are, you'll never get to where you could be. So that's a challenge - the restlessness, moving forward, being your best. And I think you're going to see that with Pope Leo.

You’re talking about building relationships and authentic human encounter. Do you think the Augustinian spirituality has something to offer — even outside of the Church — to our modern American culture, where loneliness has become an epidemic, and human interactions are declining?

Absolutely yes. Working with young people, I see loneliness as a real tangible feeling. Their lives are sometimes only behind a screen. Community and friendship are core to Augustinianism. That is a message the world needs to hear and embrace.

You see Augustine holding the heart that's on fire. The heart shows love, care, respect. The fire shows the restlessness, because the flame is never still. Restlessness means we're all going to be moving forward. So challenge people, build people up, people who are living life, you keep encouraging them. Those who need some help or encouragement, you say, come on, let's do it, and we'll do it together. And that comes right from the rule of Augustine.

Are there specific apostolates associated with being an Augustinian?

Education and parochial work would be our big things. Education is a big part of what we do because Augustine was a teacher. In the United States and Canada, we have 10 high schools. We have Villanova University outside of Philadelphia and Merrimack College outside of Boston. So two colleges and about 15 parishes.

We do preaching. I preach parish missions retreats.

We have shrines. We have the Shrine of St. Rita in Philadelphia and in Chicago. We have a Marian Shrine outside of Toronto.

We have many friars who do individual work: chaplaincy, artists, preachers. We really do what the Church needs us and calls us to do.

What does synodality look like within the Augustinian spirituality? It sounds like the origins of the order – those 800 years before the official founding – would have had synodality sort of built into the life.

In the rule of Augustine, he says everything's done together - prayer, fraternal correction, meals.

This coming week, all the Augustinians of the United States are going to be in a convocation together at Villanova University. We’re all coming together to talk about our future, what should we be doing? We have meetings. We have retreats. The Chicago province has a night right after Easter where we come together with prayer, we talk about different things, and then we have a meal together.

The meal for Augustinians is very important. Prayer is very important. It bookends what we do, like our day, morning and evening. And then dinner time - in most Augustinian communities, it would be 45 minutes to an hour. That's how you get to know each other. Augustinians would never, ever have a meal in silence. Some traditions would have silence, not Augustinians. That's not who we are.

The last time I was with Pope Leo in Chicago was last August. He showed up at our parish of St. Clare of Montefalco on her feast day. There was a Mass and a luncheon going on with the parish, and he was in town, and he didn't tell anyone he was coming. He showed up at the end of Mass, and then he stayed. It's a Mexican parish, and the ladies of the parish made this wonderful, wonderful luncheon. He stayed there. He was with everyone.

He was a cardinal. He could have said, ‘Well, I'm busy. I’ve got to leave.’ No, he was right there in the midst of everything. I think they even had him cut the cake. He was there and he stayed.

But that's the Augustinian way – to come together, and we do it not just amongst ourselves, but with the lay people that we minister to and with.

I know it’s only been a few weeks, but have you seen an increased interest in Augustinian vocations since the pope was elected?

It’s been unbelievable. We had 37,000 hits on our vocation page the first week [after Leo’s election], and we've had over 250 people in the first two weeks asking to talk to someone. I don’t think we normally get 250 in a year.

[Pope Leo] has already talked about vocations once, and the importance of young men and women listening with their heart. I hope that it's going to encourage vocations - for everyone, not just to the priesthood and religious life. We need beautiful vocations of married people. We need the lost vocation, I call it, of the single person. We need all of that. And I hope that this can be a spark for all vocations and for all young people to say, ‘What do you want me to do? That restlessness? What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go?’

What do you think about having an Augustinian pope?

We're excited. We know who Pope Leo is. We know him as our brother. We can't wait for the Church and the world to know our brother the way we know him. He's one of our own. And we get to share him with the Church. Very Augustinian, very communal.